Naperville Area CHamber of Commerce Government Affairs Roundup

Colin Dalough is the Director, Government Affairs and Business Development for the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce.

It has been a busy week here in Naperville with important regulations coming out of City Hall. The City Council voted in favor of including housing choice vouchers within the legal source of income for rental properties on October 4. In addition, the Liquor Commission voted in favor of raising the age for tobacco use, purchase, and possession to 21 on October 6. Here’s what you need to know.

Legal Source of Income

Naperville City Council voted in favor of modifying the city’s Fair Housing Ordinance to define Legal Source of Income to include vouchers. This change has the effect of explicitly adding vouchers to the list of legally protected classes.

In effect, this means that landlords must accept applications from voucher recipients and may not choose to opt out of the program categorically, even though HUD designed the housing choice voucher program to be voluntary in nature.

The Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce opposed this change, though we encouraged greater voluntary participation in the program.

In addition, the liquor commission voted in favor of raising the legal age for tobacco use to 21. In fact, the Liquor Commission voted to raise the legal age for purchase, use, and possession of tobacco products to 21. The issue will go before the City Council in November for a first reading.

What do you think? Should the City Council raise the age for purchase, possession, and use of tobacco to 21? What would be the impact on your business?